Contents

Cometbus zine

Aaron Cometbus' writing captures a slice of life in Oakland and Berkeley, California from the late 1980s through the 1990s. This includes squatting, collective living, falling in love and other perils of the punk rock lifestyle. His writing is characterized by stories of loneliness and alienation, tempered with episodes of brightness and perennial hope in the ability of humans to connect to one another.

One unique factor with Cometbus was more people bought it directly from the publisher than any other zine. Aaron's travels led him accross the U.S. where he'd meet zinesters, fans, and make many new fans selling his zine at shows, conventions, punk houses, parties, book stores and on the street to people he'd meet. In the 1990s he became a human connection between zine publishers in different cities and at conventions and on alt.zines it seemed every other zinester had an a story about meeting Aaron Cometbus.

Books

Cometbus has been self-publishing a series of small books of short stories, Chicago Stories and Mixed Reviews being the first two. He has also recorded and toured with the band Pinhead Gunpowder, which included members of Green Day before their mainstream success; and with the band Harbringer, which includes Robert Eggplant, editor of Absolutely Zippo zine and John Geek.